IMHO tires and skids together, tires to get you in and out and skids to keep everything in place and in one piece. If you opt for tires only - stick to the easy trails until you get your skids. By the way I own Bud Built skids and they are well made and fit up nicely.

Don't do 245!!! Ull hate urself in a few months. Ull be fine with the 265/75/16 or 265/70/17 depending on ur rims

Do this!!!!

If you go with stock size, you will only waste your money!!! this will give you a little extra height, and you don't rub at all!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric0947

I figure the 245's came on the truck so I'll just stick with them. I have heard that the ABS/Traction control etc. will get messed up if I use a different tire size too. Whether or not that's true, I don't know. Have not put any time into verifying it. That's about as far as I thought about it.

I have used stock and 265's, there is no problem with ABS/traction, etc...

We should try to get a meetup going for the Badlands. Looks like tires are winning so far. I have the Hankook DynaPro MT, Firestone Destination M/T, and Mud-Terrain T/A® KM2 in mind. Anyone got an opinion on which is better or if there is a better tire out there? I have an extra set of the toyota steel wheels that I plan to mount them on.

I got the goodyear wrangler authority's for my stock taco last week. 245/75/16 were $750 mounted and the 265/75/16 were only about $10 more a tire. They do awesome in every season and on/off road. I had them on my old T100 and absolutely loved them. Last week the day after I got them I went wheeling with a couple buddies, I made it further then the both of them. One was in a dodge cummins with brandnew 37" duratracs, the other was in a cherokee with 90% 33" cooper stt's. Granted the vehicle makes a big difference but they were all in aw at what the cheap tires could do.

ok, fine, it can be done.. but not safetly really.. rubbing can be dangerouse... I put 285/75/16 duratracs on.. no way those would fit without some major rubbing. but in the end.. I fully agree.. tires are more important than lift. this is the first truck ive had that was lifted.. never really needed it.. it was alwayse the tires that matterd..

Lifts of 3" and less have no impact on what tire fits without rubbing. It only changes the amount of compression needed to rub. If you have proper clearancing and cab mount chop you can fit a 285 width 33" tire the same as a lifted truck with no rubbing. Again, it is an often repeated falsehood on this forum that a lift makes room for larger tires. It does not. It can do the opposite and make rubbing more likely, but never makes extra room... ever. The way it can make rubbing more likely is via added caster with an after market UCA.

What is the best way to improve the off-road ability of a non-TDR 4x4 V6? I'm running 100% stock at the moment with highway tires. I have budget of about $1,000. Here are my ideas, but shoot me some suggestions.

I have to go with rear locker. Doesn't matter what tires you have if you unload 1 front and 1 rear you are stuck. You should be able to find a wrecked trd and snag the rear fairly cheap. Next would be tires.

Why is recovery gear not as important as tires? You can always get far enough to be stranded, stock or not. You can't always get out, tires, lift, sliders, body armor, gears, lockers, etc. None of those help when the shiny side is down. Just wondering why recovery equipment isn't more of a concern.